Grassroots News & Progressive Views

After careful consideration of the facts, the choice for this writer has become clear.

There has been an awful lot of handwringing and consternation regarding who should have the Democrats’ support in the 52nd District Congressional race. There are three major candidates for the newly redrawn, Central San Diego district: Democrats Scott Peters and Lori Saldaña, and incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray, formerly of the 50th Congressional District based in Coastal North San Diego County. [Read more…]

The two-thirds requirement to pass legislation is grinding the state’s government–and the economy–to a halt.

Last month Los Angeles Times columnist George Skelton dished out some harsh criticism for California Governor Jerry Brown for his challenge to the state Legislature to “man up” and pass his proposed spending cuts. In addition to his push for a ballot initiative in November to temporarily raise state sales taxes and income taxes on those Californians earning more than $250,000 per year, the governor said it will also be necessary to slash spending due to the larger than expected projected budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year. At the time, the expected shortfall was just north of $9 billion. [Read more…]

San Diego Mayoral candidate says his defection from the Republican Party means he’s changed, but there’s no real evidence to demonstrate he has.

I received an email from the Nathan Fletcher for Mayor Campaign last week. It’s the usual stuff: “This week Nathan Fletcher was attacked from the far-right for working with Democrats, and from the far-left for working with Republicans. The truth is they’re both right. Nathan will work with anyone to solve problems.” [Read more…]

The pillars of Carl DeMaio’s political beliefs and what a Mayor DeMaio would mean for San Diego

Understanding candidate DeMaio’s motivations necessitates revisiting those formative years in Washington DC. Young Carl, in his associations with the Heritage, Reason, and Cato foundations, along with his fellow travelers Virginia Thomas (wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas) and Newt Gingrich was in the midst of the formation of an ideological jihad. [Read more…]

San Diego mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio likes to portray himself in the media and in his political propaganda that he is the populist outsider that will save San Diego from itself, an image that could not possibly be more misleading

DeMaio is not just a garden-variety right winger, he is one of the architects of the movement that has pushed the Republican party into becoming a crew of corporate anarchists whose goal it is to radically remake American society into a privatopia, where the public sector serves little function other than as a conduit for public tax dollars into the hands of the moneyed elite. He is San Diego’s robber barons’ best friend. [Read more…]

San Diego’s longtime District Attorney goes full politician, facing her first contested election in a decade.

San Diego’s District Attorney is a bit of a trailblazer. In a way, Bonnie Dumanis is sort of a rags-to-riches story, going from secretarial work to attorney to judge, and in 2002 she was chosen by the electorate to become the top law enforcement official in all of San Diego County, beating Paul Pfingst to become the DA. And oh-by-the-way: She’s the first openly gay person to be elected District Attorney in the nation. [Read more…]

As Scott Peters and Lori Saldaña joust over who is more likely to defeat Brian Bilbray in November, the key will be who can carry the “Decline to State” vote. Can Peters’ appeal to moderates and fundraising advantage overcome Saldaña’s grass roots machine?

It should be fairly common knowledge by now that Scott Peters is not exactly a flaming liberal. Don’t expect him to embark on a crusade to ban all domestic oil production, nationalize all banks in response to the financial meltdown, and demand that single-payer healthcare be instituted immediately (although he probably wouldn’t mind seeing a shift toward a single-payer system). And that’s perfectly okay. He’s a pragmatist; a realist who recognizes the climate around him for what it is and finds a way to work within it while continuing to chip away to change things toward what in his view is the better. [Read more…]

Democrats Lori Saldaña and Scott Peters challenge incumbent Republican Brian Bilbray in San Diego’s newly redrawn 52nd Congressional District. Which Democrat stands the best chance to defeat an incumbent who is widely viewed as vulnerable?

Things have changed significantly since the 2010 election. California has a new primary system put in place by the voters. Unlike the previous system, where unless one candidate earned more than 50% of the total vote, the top vote getters from each party would advance to the general election in November. This time around the top two vote getters regardless of party affiliation will advance to the November general; unless of course someone earns more than 50% on June 5th, which is very highly unlikely. [Read more…]

The long awaited pension reform proposal from the lone Democrat in the San Diego Mayor’s race has finally arrived

As I noted last Friday, mayoral candidate Bob Filner wasn’t doing San Diego any favors by not officially releasing his alternative to the Comprehensive Pension Reform (Prop B) promoted so heavily by Carl DeMaio and the other Republican challengers in the mayor’s race. [Read more…]

Longtime Congressman and current candidate for Mayor of San Diego discusses mayoral race in an exclusive in depth interview.

On Friday mayoral candidate Bob Filner sat down with the OB Rag to discuss a wide range of topics, including sharing details on a pension plan that he has been promoting that as of yet has not been formally presented for examination. [Read more…]

The Public Should Be Eying Mark Nelson – Not Michael Zucchet

A mild controversy swirled around Michael Zucchet from Point Loma the other day because he was one of two people appointed to the San Diego Oversight Board.

Those who still are not convinced of Zucchet’s innocence in San Diego’s “stripper-gate” scandal of 2003 to 2005, and those who are bothered because he is currently the general manager of the the City’s largest public-employee union, the San Diego Municipal Employees Association, opposed his nomination and selection by Mayor Sanders and the City Council.

Yet, the real controversy should have swirled around the other appointee, Mark Nelson, but more on that in a moment.

Zucchet and Nelson were both nominated by our “strong” mayor, Jerry Sanders to serve on the San Diego Oversight Board, which will oversee and supervise the deconstruction of San Diego’s fourteen redevelopment projects, as mandated by State law.[Read more…]

Tennessee senators approved an update to the state’s abstinence-based sex education law that includes warnings against “gateway sexual activity.”

In a new family life instructions bill, holding hands and kissing could be considered gateways to sex.

Fox News plays whack-a-mole and Wins!… A few days ago the gossip mongers over at Gawker announced with much glee that they’d acquired a mole deep inside the Fox News operation who was gonna dish the real dirt about the fair and balanced folks. In the short space of a few days we learned about the restrooms at Fox, the Hip Hop BBQ story at Fox that pushed an earnest young journalist intro becoming The Mole and Sean Hannity’s love of teleprompters…and then…they caught him. The Mole was no more. He didn’t even have a chance to buy a snazzy costume! It turns out he was Joe Muto, an associate producer for the O’Reilly Factor. He was busted for leaving a digital trail as he brazenly downloaded stuff via his Fox News Commodore 64 computer. Alas, we had so many questions that will never be answered.. I couldn’t believe that the FIRST commenter at Gawker beat me to the punch: Hi Joe, can I be the first liberal to call you a douchebag?

Klan robes on aisle three… A study, published in Social Science Quarterly, found that the number of Wal-Mart stores was a better predictor of hate group participation than the unemployment rate, high crime rates and low education. Can we get a copy of this sent to City Council President Tony Young, who actually thinks Wal Mart is gonna live up to the promises they made last year about building a bunch of stores here in San Diego? [Read more…]

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The Safety Pin

Many Resistance Groups have stood up against the horrible events in Charlottesville and have reacted against the unacceptable response of our President. It is now our turn in North San Diego County to show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in resistance to protest the white supremacist movement.